THEE upNup on Deep Mess!
Deep Mess by Glass Jury - Booth, MAGfest 2024
This year THEE upNup got to check out the Indie Developer Hall at MAGfest 2024 and got to see lots of great games by amazing developers. We were impressed by so many but one standout game for us was tactical strategy game Deep Mess by Glass Jury. With inspiration from cult favorite Into The Breach this game has you controlling units as you nail a spike deeper and deeper down into a gods brain with the ultimate goal being LOBOTOMIZE GOD! If ever there was a tagline for a video game that is it.
Deep Mess has you navigating your three soldiers as you travel down layer by layer defeating enemies, positioning yourself to get the upper hand, and planning out moves in advance to create the perfect combo. Like the before mentioned Into the Breach you fight via a turn based system on top a grid. The thing that makes Deep Mess unique though is it’s verticality. Instead of self contained battles you will be continuing your fight downward as you literally hammer a spike through the layers of skin, bone, and brain matter. Knowing when to hammer the nail is a strategy in and of itself, hit it too soon and be overrun with enemies on the next floor. Wait too long to bring down the hammer and risk the spike being damaged or reinforcements showing up. With the additions of procedural generated quests, character specific powers, upgrades, and a unique weapon mechanic there’s a lot of nuance and strategy to be had here.
THEE upNup got a chance to speak with Jon Talbot the Technical Director for Deep Mess and here’s what he had to say about his studio’s Glass Jury and their FIRST game:
upNup:
We are here at the Deep Mess booth at Magfest with Jon. First of all, explain to our audience what is Deep Mess?
Jon:
So Deep Mess is a micro tactics game with a unique vertical layer of strategy where every combat floor leads directly into the next floor. So where your units are positioned when you end that floor dictates where you're going to start on the next, as well as what hazards to avoid and enemies that you could possibly trap. And the narrative of the game is you're going through God's head to give him a lobotomy.
upNup:
So fun. Such a unique thing. The art style is really great too. I think it makes the game stand out, in my opinion. It's very cohesive and it reminds me of that mid to late 2000s kind of cartooniness in a really fun way that makes the gruesomeness less gruesome for sure.
Jon:
Oh, yeah, we're trying to go for a cutesy gruesome thing.
upNup:
Yeah, it's really great. You nail it, pun intended.
Jon:
Inspired by things like garbage pail kids, but also, as you said, 2000s, like toonami, that kind of vibe.
upNup:
For sure, so how long have you been working on making this game?
Jon:
So we've been working on this game for just under a year now. It started while we were students at the NYU game center.
upNup:
Oh, that's awesome.
Jon:
Yeah. So we're graduated now, but this was our thesis project. We were part of the grad program. So we were working on this during that, and then after we graduated, the NYU game center Incubator picked us up. So we got support from them to continue working on the game.
upNup:
So they saw promise in it, obviously. That's awesome!
upNup:
So when deep mess releases, what platform will it be available on?
Jon:
So we're currently just targeting steam. But these things are dependent because we are looking for publisher support. So depending on what kind of support we get, we might be able to expand into other platforms.
upNup:
The only reason I ask is that this would be one mobile game I would pay like $30 for to have on my iPad.
Jon:
I mean, originally the inception of it, we did want to make it for mobile, but eventually we switched to just a pc release because it's our first game as a team.
upNup:
So this is your official first game?
Jon:
Yeah, we formed a company since graduating. It's called Glass Jury, and this will be the debut game for that game studio.
upNup:
Awesome! It's going to be a great release as a debut, that's for sure.
“…And the narrative of the game is you're going through God's head to give him a lobotomy.”
upNup
So, rogue lite or rogue like?
Jon:
I would say lite. Probably, yeah. I mean, I don't want to get in the weeds of the exact distinctions, but yes, there are rogue lite elements to this. It's a pretty light touch in the demo. We have a lot of plans for bolstering that system, getting a meta progression system in as well.
upNup:
There seems to be some inspirations from into the breach am I correct in that?
Jon:
Yeah, that's right.
upNup:
How do you think Deep Mess is going standout from them?
Jon:
So, it's been some years now since into the breach came out. We noticed that there's sort of a gap in the market for micro tactics game like that. And so we set out to create a game that could be a little more fluid and suffer less from sort of the analysis paralysis that you get in some of those harder tactics games. So our game is really more focused on just sort of rolling with the punches and being fast and loose with your strategy.
upNup:
It does have a little arcade feel to it, keeps it fresh and fast paced. I mean, genuinely, one thing I loved about this versus Into the Breach is, in this game, pardon my language. I felt fine f*cking up. You know what I mean? Like, into the breach, I always felt it was catastrophic. I think it's because that game takes itself so seriously. So when you made a mistake, it felt terrible. It also didn't help that people died narratively because I'm an idiot.
Jon:
Absolutely, For sure. I think one other big distinction is our ability to end the combat floor at the player's decision. So it's like you get like a get out of jail free if you're in a compromised situation. You just hit that nail and then you drop out of it.
upNup:
And I love the one time I did it, a strategic drop. I dropped because two enemies would have fell on the spike and I would have died if I stayed. So I hit the nail, dropped, and took out half of the enemies on the screen. It's so cool that has become part of the strategy of how you play the this style of game.
upNup:
And as you go deeper are there going to be more biomes? Right now we're looking at kind of like a skeletal type level.
Jon:
So for this demo that we have here at MAGfest, it's the bone biome, the cranium of this God. But in the full scope of the game, you're going to be boring through different biomes, including muscle, brain, and eventually, like a mind palace, sort of an abstract getting into the inner thoughts of the God.
upNup:
That's very clever! So do you have an anticipated release date? Are you available for wish list for Steam?
Jon:
Yes! Please wish list us on Steam. We've got our Steam page up. We're aiming for a release early 2025. Publisher support, depending. We'll probably do early access in late 2024.
upNup:
That's awesome!
upNup:
All right, well, we look forward to the game's release. Maybe when it's closer, we'll reach back out to just talk about it some more.
Jon:
Yeah, we'd love to!
upNup:
Awesome. Thank you so much! This has been THEE upNup and we now return you to your regular scheduled programming.
Thank you to Jon and the best of luck to the entire crew at their new studio Glass Jury. Check out their page and follow them on all their social medias and stay tuned for DEEP MESS aimed to release in 2025!
Wishlist DEEP MESS on STEAM today!
This interview was paraphrased for formatting reasons only, The views and opinions were not altered in any way. To listen to this interview in it’s entirety along with the rest of our MAGfest coverage please listen our Latest Podcast Episode!
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